Senior Labor frontbencher Mark Butler makes stunning admission on pensioner scare campaign

A senior Labor frontbencher has made a stunning admission about his party’s claims the cashless welfare card is to be expanded to pensioners.

A senior Labor frontbencher has admitted the Morrison Government has not called for the cashless welfare card to be expanded to pensioners, despite Opposition leader Anthony Albanese refusing to drop its claims.

It comes after days of pressure, as independent seniors advocacy groups call out the campaign and Prime Minister Scott Morrison called it a “horrible lie”.

Labor’s spokesman for health and ageing Mark Butler confirmed there were no quotes of the Prime Minister or Social Services Minister calling for it to include pensioners.

“Well no,” he said on ABC radio when asked if he could point to a quote.

Opposition spokesman for health and ageing Mark Butler. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Dean Martin

“What I can point to is comments from Scott Morrison, who said that the cashless welfare card handed itself to wider application.”

Mr Albanese on Tuesday had pointed to a quote from Social Services Minister Anne Ruston from 2020 saying; “we’re seeking to put all income management onto the universal platform which is the cashless debit card”.

The quote was in reference to expanding the cashless debit card to replace the other income management tool, the BasicsCard, while there has been discussion of expanding it to further regions.

The cashless debit card, being trailed in some areas including Hinkler and Cape York, quarantines 80 per cent of JobSeeker payments for under 35s to prevent welfare being spent on alcohol, gambling and drugs.

Ms Ruston said Mr Butler’s comments put to bed the claims it would be expanded to pensioners.

“A senior member of Anthony Albanese’s frontbench has now admitted that there is no basis for Labor’s shameless campaign targeting Australian Age Pensioners,” she said.

“If Mr Albanese wants to talk about trust and integrity, then he should stop side stepping the questions and commit to ending this disgraceful attempt to win votes through fearmongering and lies.”

Prime Minister Scott Morrison with Social Services Minister Anne Ruston. Picture: Jason Edwards

Mr Morrison said claims it would be expanded to pensioners were “an out and out lie”.

“They try and scare people. Now, let me tell you why they want to do that – after three years you still haven’t come up with an economic plan,” he said.

Mr Butler, in the same interview, defended Labor continuing to run the scare campaign targeted at pensioners.

“Even if they didn’t mention particular groups. Everyone knows what sort of groups are covered by government payment,” he said.

The claims have now been called out by the Council on the Ageing who urged political parties to stop “scaring old people”, National Seniors Australia and resulted in state Labor MP Brittany Lauga apologising for misleading the Parliament when repeating them.